Katherine von Swartzschild and Klaus
They were the main antagonists as well as the oldest and powerful vampires of the original series. Characters *Katherine von Swartzschild - Born in Germany during the 1400's to the Baron von Swartzschild, Katherine was frail during her childhood and her last illness was terminal. She recalls later that she was unable to breathe and too weak to move; her father was devastated. Gudren, her maid, sought out a vampire named Klaus who was in the local village at the time, and he made her into a vampire, saving her from death and making her much stronger than she had been in life. Physically, Katherine was extremely beautiful and elegant. Katherine has very white skin and a pale, translucent complexion which is soft and said to be perfect and flawless. Katherine has deep, blue jewel eyes, which have been said to strongly resemble a kitten's eyes. Katherine has golden blond, ultra long hair, which is described to be fair, flaxen and like silk in appearance. While Katherine has blond hair. It is thick in abundance and it is curly/wavy-ish. In the beginning, Katherine was sweet, docile, naive, childlike, fragile and an emotionally vulnerable girl but a little bit on the selfish, spoiled and immature side. However, in the centuries between the Italian Renaissance and the time of when she makes her first appearance in The Fury, Katherine had grown to be quite devious and insane, which is at least partly attributable to the influence of Klaus, her vampire maker. Over a period of time, Katherine had become the complete and total opposite of her old self — evil, crazy, barbaric, inhumane, vicious, cold-blooded, cold-hearted, wicked, murderous, vengeful, jealous, manipulative, malicious and hungry for power and revenge. She boasts about killing tons and tons of both humans and vampires over the past few centuries; displaying her psychopathic and murderous ways, and she has become fiercely hungry for power and revenge. However, despite her complete negative alteration in her characterization, Katherine still displays grief and heartbreak over what happened in the past with her and the both of the Salvatore brothers. She is revealed to be the "Other Power" that is damaging the town of Fells Church. In The Fury, Katherine becomes very antagonistic against Stefan, Damon and Elena. *Klaus - Born at some point in the Bronze Age (4500-3200 BCE). Klaus is a pure-blood vampire, (an Original) who is one of the Old Ones. Klaus has never been human, and he existed long ago before the pyramids were built. According to his words, he fought in the Trojan war and even helped for the downfall of the Roman empire. In the late 15 century, he lived in a village in Germany. The people thought that he was the devil himself. One day, a maid showed up and begged for his help, because her young mistress was dying. That girl was Katherine. Physical appearance wise, Klaus is tall and very Nordic in appearance, with electric blue eyes and short, close-cropped platinum blond hair. He is described as being handsome, muscular but lean. Klaus' personality is described as wise, extremely sinister, evil, vengeful, dangerous, highly powerful and is highly intimidating and threatening. Klaus is extremely deranged, and the line between his evil and his madness is very blurry. When pressed, he is deadly serious and reminds everyone about his unfathomable old age, but most of the time he seems unnaturally chipper, and his evil deeds during Dark Reunion are always tinged with irony. Early History Many millennia before starting the story, Klaus was a nomadic tralever. During his travels, Klaus only destroyed and turned some humans into vampires for fun. The ancient vampire never considered the other beings worthy of appreciation and loyalty. Eventually after a series of wars, battles and confrontation between humans, Klaus remained in Germany for centuries. During his stay, Klaus met a beautiful young woman named Katherine von Swartzschild and her servant Gruden. The Awakening In a flashback, Katherine mentioned that she was very ill for many years. Gruden, Katherine's servant, sought help from a "man" named Klaus, after learning that her young master would die without a doubt. Katherine says that when she first met Klaus, she felt a great fear and terror when they met. Klaus without hesitation exchange blood with Katherine. Secretly, Klaus kept an eye on Katherine from the day. Katherine's health improved and her father took her journey to find a cure if she was sick again. The Struggle Katherine fakes her death to avoid fights between the brothers but the plan went wrong and both were murdered. In the book, not mentioned on Klaus, but it is assumed that he manipulate the Katherine's mind to destroy the Salvatore brothers. The Fury Katherine has her first and last battle against Elena, Stefan and Damon. Katherine shows that her personality has completely changed, making her unstable and insane. She mentions that after the tragedy between Stefan and Damon, Klaus found her in the edge of agony and despair. Katherine says that Klaus helped her to be stronger and know her true power, however, she had to kill Klaus after he was no longer useful (Klaus manipulate the Katherine' minds). She proves to be cruel, sadistic, malevolent, sinister and jealous. Unfortunately, Katherine is entrusted to the weakness of the vampires and that's when Elena attacked, causing her to be exposed to the sun and die. At the end of the book, Elena's spirit communicates with Bonnie, who tells which a menacing power has come to Fell's Church, Klaus. Dark Reunion Klaus comes just months after the death of Katherine. Klaus begins to distort Elena's messages and cruelly murdered Victoria Bennett and Sue Carson. Klaus uses his power to make a strong pressure on the town. During the meeting of Stefan and Elena, Klaus appears and that's when Stefan claims that he was who caused the madness of Katherine. Klaus says that Katherine is just lost and he only shows power. Klaus shows have some kind of loyalty to Katherine, because he came to town to destroy Stefan and Damon. During the final confrontation, Klaus faces of the murderers of Katherine: Stefan and Damon. When Klaus is to destroy the brothers, Elena appears along with the army of ghosts. Klaus is defeated and taken to a place where he can no longer be any harm. The Return and The Hunters Series In the next series of books: The Return and The Hunters, Klaus and Katherine are mentioned very little about them. But an old and powerful vampire named Sage could be related to them, as well as the Nether World, a vampire purgatory. Consequences and Victims This relationship, literally caused the start of the series: The Vampire Diaries and the future of it (The Return and The Hunters). Klaus changes the result of some major battles in the history of the human race. Katherine and Klaus destroyed and murderer a large number of vampires and humans for centuries, this justifies why there are few vampires in the original series. Katherine's victims *Hundreds of vampires (before the books) *Hundreds of humans (before the books) *Elena Marie Gilbert (Directly) *Stefan Antonio Salvatore (Directly) *Damon Francesco Salvatore (Directly) *Bonnie Isabelle McCullough (Indirectly) *Meredith Rosario Sulez (Indirectly) *Matthew Jeffrey Honeycutt (Indirectly) *Alaric K. Saltzman (Indirectly) *Caroline Beula Forbes (Indirectly) *Tyler Smallwood (Indirectly) *Victoria Bennett (Directly) *People of Fell's Chuch (Indirectly) Klaus' victims *Hundreds of vampires (before the books) *Hundreds of humans (before the books) *Elena Marie Gilbert (Directly) *Stefan Antonio Salvatore (Directly) *Damon Francesco Salvatore (Directly) *Bonnie Isabelle McCullough (Directly) *Meredith Rosario Sulez (Directly) *Matthew Jeffrey Honeycutt (Directly) *Alaric K. Saltzman (Indirectly) *Caroline Beula Forbes (Directly) *Tyler Smallwood (Directly) *Victoria Bennett (Directly) *Sue Carson (Directly) *Cristian Sulez (Directly) *People of Fell's Chuch (Indirectly) Etymology The meaning of the names of both characters are related to their personalities and lives. Names - *'Katherine' is of Greek origin, and the meaning is "Pure". *'Klaus' is a German name meaning "Victory of the People" Surnames - *'von' is in German a preposition which approximately means "Of" or "From". *'Swartzschild' is a German surname meaning "Black sign" or "Black shield". Characters' Inspiration * In the books, the Klaus' character was partially based on Rutger Hauer's character (John Ryder) in the 1986 movie The Hitcher. **''John Ryder "The Hitcher": It is not clear where he came from, who he is or what his motivation is, but the one thing that is known is that his name is John Ryder. He has a sadistic drive for killing everyone and anyone he comes across. From what it seems, he is suicidal and he's on the look out for someone to do the task for him.'' * In the books, It is not known which was the inspiration for Katherine' character but possibly this inspired in the same L.J. Smith. **''Katherine von Swartzschild and L.J. Smith share certain characteristics: both are blondes with beautiful eyes, beautiful appearance, as well as having a sweet and loving personality.'' Quotes Katherine von Swartzschild -"I woke in the middle of the night to see Gudren, my maid, standing over my bed. And then she stepped aside, and I saw the man she had brought. I was frightened. His name was Klaus, and I'd heard the people in the village say he was evil. I cried out to Gudren to save me, but she just stood there, watching. When he put his mouth to my neck, I thought he was going to kill me. It was not so terrible after all. There was a little pain at first, but that quickly went away. And then the feeling was actually pleasant. When he gave me of his own blood to drink, I felt stronger than I had for months. And then we waited out the hours together until dawn."- -"You should have thought of that a long time ago. I might have listened to you then. I was sorry you'd killed each other at first. I ran away, without even Gudren, back to my home. But then I didn't have anything, not even a new dress, and I was hungry and cold. I might have starved if Klaus hadn't found me."- -"Klaus taught me the truth. He showed me how the world really is. You have to be strong, and take the things you want. You have to think only of yourself. And I'm the strongest of all now. I am. You know how I got that way?. Lives. So many lives. Humans and vampires, and they're all inside me now. I killed Klaus after a century or two. He was surprised. He didn't know how much I'd learned."- Klaus -"I was tearing pretty white throats when your ancestors were building the Colosseum. I killed with Alexander's army. I fought in the Trojan War. I'm old, Salvatore. I'm one of the Originals. In my earliest memories I carried a bronze ax."- -"I helped bring the Roman Empire down. They called us barbarians—they just didn't understand! War, Salvatore! There's nothing like it. Europe was exciting then. I decided to stick around the countryside and enjoy myself. Strange, you know, people never really seemed comfortable around me. They used to run or hold up crosses. But one woman came and asked my help. She was a maid in a baron's household, and her little mistress was sick. Dying, she said. She wanted me to do something about it. And so… I did. She was a pretty little thing. Katherine."- -"I'm one of the Old Ones! An Original! Do you know what that means?. I've never died. Every one of you has died, you gallery of spooks! But not me. Death can't touch me. I am invincible !"- Trivia *Katherine was the only person that Klaus wanted as his student and possibly something than that. *Both were defeated by the same person, Elena Marie Gilbert (as human and spirit respectively). *In spite of the madness, cruelty and evil, both showed loyalty to each other. *Although not stated in the books, but possibly Klaus manipulate the Katherine's minds to release her from that suffering caused by Stefan and Damon. *The true personality of Klaus remains unknown, but it may have been kind, gentle and respectful to be before being alone for millennia as Katherine in centuries. *On the book's cover "O Confronto" should be the image of Damon, but could also be Klaus for eye color and sinister look. *A curious fact is that both characters start with the letter "K", both are blond with blue eyes, attractive and beautiful, they are the only vampires that have fed on other vampires, humans and possibly werewolves and witches, as well as being the most powerful and old vampires in the original saga (The Awakening, The Struggle, The Fury and Dark Reunion). *Interestingly, the creator of the original series: Lisa Jane Smith is blonde and her initials are L and J, where K is the letter that stands in the middle of both. Gallery Katherine von Swartzschild in the saga.JPG Klaus in the saga.jpg Katherine-von-Swartzschild-vampire-diaries-books-1-.gif Klaus-vampire-diaries-books-1-.gif Lisa Jane Smith-1-.jpg John Ryder - The Hitcher.jpg Category:Novel-Only Characters Category:Relationships Category:Enemy Relationship